Congress to review Communications Act

Congress Democrats said May 24 they'll begin a "process to develop proposals" to change the Communications Act--which was last significantly amended in 1996.

In a terse statement on the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee website, Senator John Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va.) said they will start holding meetings in June on the topic.

Rockefeller is chairman of the Senate commerce committee; Waxman is chairman of the House Energy and Commerce committee.

The announcement comes during a time of uncertainty over the government's statutory ability to regulate telecommunications and amid questions about whether it should. The Federal Communications Commission's May 6 announcement that  it would reclassify Internet broadband as a telecommunications service in order to enforce net neutrality among Internet service providers has proved controversial.

The FCC's National Broadband Plan has also generally proved contentious. "The expanded FCC jurisdiction over broadband that has been proposed and the manner in which it would be implemented are unprecedented and create regulatory uncertainty," said a May 24 letter (.pdf) signed by 74 Democratic congressmen.

For more:
- the terse announcement
- a May 24 letter to the FCC signed by 74 Democratic congressmen (.pdf)
- the FCC's National Broadband Plan

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